usually on grassy flats, but in Scandinavia generally on broken ground
with birch scrub here and there. Here the female scratches a hollow
among the moss and deposits her four handsome eggs. F. and P. Godman
(1861), who found several nests in the Bodö district, Norway, discovered
one which had an incomplete set of two eggs. On returning two days later
to the spot nothing was visible but some disarranged bits of moss.
Alarmed by their approach the bird flew off, leaving a hole in the moss
through which the eggs were visible. On a third visit the bird was found
incubating the two eggs, which were on the point of hatching, and was
covered with fragments of moss which she had evidently torn up and
thrown over herself. None of the other nests found were concealed in any
way.
_Eggs._--These are normally four in number, though occasionally three
may be met with. They are pyriform in shape with a pale stone colored
ground and boldly spotted and blotched with dark umber, shading into
black and numerous ashy gray shell markings. The markings are usually
denser and more concentrated at the big end, often with a tendency to a
zone. The measurements of 100 eggs from northern Europe (69 by the
writer, 19 by Goebel, and 12 by Rey) average 45.3 by 31.8 millimeters;
the eggs showing the four extremes measure =48.8= by 31.9, 46.2 by
=33.3=, =41.2= by 31.7, and 46.5 by =29.5= millimeters. Rey (1905) gives
the average weight as 1.107 g. and Goebel as 1.035 g.
_Young._--As to the share of the sexes in incubation our information is
scanty; but, such as it is, goes to prove that it is conducted by the
female alone. Naumann (1887) gives the period as 17 to 18 days and
states that as soon as the young are dried they leave the nest and take
to the long grass which effectually conceals them.
_Plumages._--The reader is referred to A Practical Handbook of British
Birds, edited by H. F. Witherby (1920), where a complete account of the
plumages and molts of this species is given.
_Food._--Naumann (1887) records small worms, insect larvae, small
snails, coleoptera, water insects, and larvae of Phryganeidae. Yarrell
(1871) includes larvae of insects, especially Tipulidae, and small slugs
as well as worms. These last seem to form the staple diet.
_Behavior._--The family parties soon break up and from late autumn to
its arrival on the breeding grounds it is more likely to be met with
singly than in company. Its flight is not so rapid as that of the common
snipe, but slower and more direct, while instead of uttering the well
known _scape_, it either rises in silence or merely utters a guttural
croaking note.
_Fall._--More frequently met with in the British Isles on the autumn
migration from the end of July to mid-November than in spring, but
probably frequently overlooked. By the beginning of August the young are
full grown normally, and gradually make their way from the high north in
Norway southward, the majority of migrants taking an easterly course and
only a small proportion moving south-westward to the winter quarters.
DISTRIBUTION
_Breeding range._--Norway, north to Tromsö, Sweden, to latitude 65° N.,
formerly in Denmark but now extinct, as also in Schleswig. It is said to
have bred formerly in Holland and still does so in East Prussia and
eastward to Estonia, Finland, Russia, according to Buturlin, up to
latitude 63° near the Great Lakes, 65-1/2° on the White Sea, and 67-1/2°
in the Petchora, while southward it is said to breed in Bessarabia
(Rumania) and in the Governments of Kieff, Poltava, Kharkoff, and
Voronsh, and to 51-1/2° N. in the Urals as well as in the Caucasus. In
Asia it breeds near Omsk, in the Altai and the tributaries of the Ob,
but not beyond the Yenesei or in East Siberia.
_Winter range._--Cape Province, Natal, Transvaal (September to March),
Damara Land, Bechuana Land, Portuguese East Africa, Southwest Africa,
Persia, Turkestan, and India (once).
_Migration._--River Zambesi, Egypt (not uncommon), Alexandria, etc.,
Algeria, Greece (April 23, May 7), Cyprus, Corfu (March), Malta (March
30), Naples, Corsica (March 25), Valencia (October 9), Montenegro (April
15, 24), Asia Minor (May 9, Sept. 21), Fao, Persian Gulf, Iraq (April,
Aug., Sept.).
_Egg dates._--Formerly in Denmark from May 6 to June 8 (12 records),
occasionally in July; in Scandinavia from end of May to middle of July
(10 records, June 13 to July 15).
LYMNOCRYPTES MINIMUS (Brünnich)
JACK SNIPE
_Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain_
HABITS
Sometime during the spring of 1919, probably in April, a specimen of
this snipe was taken by a native on St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands,
Alaska, and presented to G. Dallas Hanna. The bird is now in the
collection of the California Academy of Sciences, and constitutes the
only record for North America. It is, however, a widely distributed
species, breeding not only in Arctic Europe, but also across the
greater part of northern Asia, and wintering south to north Africa and
southern Asia.
_Courtship._--Of the courtship actions in the strict sense of the words
we have practically no observations, as this species has rarely been
kept in captivity and then singly and for short periods. The nuptial
flight is, however, more conspicuous and was described in the oft-quoted
letter of John Wolley, written from Muoniovara on November 27th, 1853,
to W. C. Hewitson (1856), and published in the third edition of
"Coloured Illustrations of the Eggs of British Birds" by that writer. To
Wolley belongs the credit of being the first to discover and bring to
the knowledge of naturalists the eggs of this species, for the eggs
previously ascribed to this species from localities much farther south
were not by any means satisfactorily authenticated. Wolley had been for
some time at his headquarters on the borders of Sweden and what is now
Finland, when, on June 17th, 1853, while working the great marsh at
Muonioniska, he first heard the jack snipe, though as he states:
At the time I could not at all guess what it was--an extraordinary
sound unlike anything I had heard before. I could not tell from
what direction it came, and it filled me with a curious suspense.
My Finnish interpreter thought it was a Capercally (_Tetrao
urogallus_) and at the time I could not contradict him; but soon I
found that it was a small bird gliding at a wild pace at a great
height over the marsh. I know not how better to describe the noise
than by likening it to the cantering of a horse in the distance
over a hard hollow road; it came in fours with a similar cadence
and a like clear, yet hollow, sound. The same day we found a nest
which seemed of a kind unknown to me. The next morning I went to
Kharto-uoma with a good strength of beaters. I kept them as well as
I could in line, myself in the middle, my Swedish traveling
companion on one side, and the Finn talker on the other. Whenever a
bird was put off its nest the man who saw it was to pass on the
word and the whole line was to stand whilst I went to examine the
eggs and take them at once or observe the bearings of the spot for
another visit as might be necessary. We had not been many hours in
the marsh when I saw a bird get up before Herr Saloman, and I
marked it down. In the meantime the nest was found and when I came
up the owner was declared to have appeared striped on the back and
not white over the tail. A sight of the eggs, as they lay
untouched, raised my expectations to the highest pitch. I went to
the spot where I had marked the bird, put it up again, found that
it was indeed a jack snipe, and again saw it after a short, low
flight drop suddenly into cover; once more it rose a few feet from
where it had settled, I fired and in a minute had in my hand a true
jack snipe, the undoubted parent of the nest of eggs. In the course
of the day and night I found three more nests and examined the
birds of each. One allowed me to touch it with my hand before it
rose, and another only got up when my foot was within 6 inches of
it. It was very fortunate that I was thus able satisfactorily to
identify so fine a series of eggs, for they differ considerably
from one another.
The great German ornithologist Naumann (1887) also describes the
nuptial flight, as observed by him in still weather on spring
evenings; as scarcely audible at over a hundred paces and recalling the
tapping noise made by the death-watch beetle. He writes the sound as
"_Tettettettettett_," etc., and says each note lasts six seconds at a
time, as the bird sweeps over the marsh now rising and then falling in
tone as it is uttered.
V. Russon, the Estonian ornithologist, also observed the flight on a
marsh near Kurkull, in Estonia, and noticed that the snipe rose high in
the air and gradually descended again after a flight of several hundred
yards. He compares the sound to the words: "_Lok-toggi, lok-toggi,
lok-toggi_," which certainly agree with the impression given by Wolley's
graphic description. He says the local names current in the district are
derived from the resemblance the bird's notes bear to the rattle of a
dilapidated wagon wheel. In the night the jack snipe is silent, but the
display begins again with the first glimmering of dawn, but does not as
a rule last long. The note described by Naumann he only heard on two
occasions just before the bird settled in the swamp and believed it to
be caused by rapid snapping of the bill.
_Nesting._--Like the common snipe, the jack snipe breeds in the marshes,
choosing a slight hollow in a fairly dry, grassy, or sedge-grown spot,
but close to open swamp. Wolley describes the five nests seen by him as
being all alike in structure, "made loosely of little pieces of grass
and equisetum not at all woven together, with a few old leaves of the
dwarf birch." It is an extremely close sitter, not stirring from its
eggs till almost trodden on, while one bird actually allowed Wolley to
touch it with his hand before it flew. The breeding season is late, for
eggs are rarely met with before mid-June and have been recorded
throughout July and even in August.
Ralph Chislett (1927) has published his recent experience with the
nesting habits of the jack snipe, from which the following is quoted:
The wide marsh stretched for a number of miles between the
birch-clad slopes of some low hills. From the hillsides, at
intervals, open sheets of water of varying dimensions could be
seen, and a fringe of the birch forest stretched almost down to a
small, peaty pool. Through the woodland fringe a stream hurried,
clear and cold with melted snow from the hill. Leaving the stream
at a place where yellow globe-flowers grew in profusion, we
followed the ridges of soft ground which intersected the marsh.
Progress was impeded by scrub-willow, while hummocks of moss and
mounds of crowberry and vaccinium overlay the peat foundation of
the ridge, many of the hummocks being white with cloudberry blooms.
Between the ridges in the marshy tracts grass grew thinly through
the moss, and still more thinly in the centers, where our feet were
brought up firmly at a depth of eighteen inches by the still frozen
bottom. Later in the summer the marshes would probably be deeper.
Not more than two hundred yards from the wood, a ridge sank and
allowed the surplus water from one flattened area of grassy marsh
to drain through to the next. On the north side of the trickle the
ground rose slowly to the full height of the ridge again, perhaps a
yard above the marsh-level. Midway up the little slope, on a dry
bit of ground, a few stalks of scrub-birch partially shielded the
jack snipe from view as it sat on the nest by the side of a
cloudberry plant. Not that shelter was needed. The nest would never
have been found had my foot not happened to drop within a few
inches of it. Then away the bird flew, with a low, almost direct
flight, without any sudden twists for some twenty yards, then down
into the marsh. When flushed it disappeared from view into the
marsh and was not seen again until within a few feet of the nest.
Once, when spotted a couple of yards away, it covered that short
distance a foot at a time, crouching down for a few seconds between
each very short journey; then, still crouching, it covered the eggs
and remained motionless.
The nest was found on June 12th, 1926, and it then contained four
eggs. The last time I inspected it was on July 6th, when the eggs
were cracking at their larger ends.
_Eggs._--The eggs are extraordinarily large for the size of the bird,
being but little smaller than those of the common snipe (_Capella
gallinago_). They are, as a rule, more or less distinctly pyriform and
are normally four in number. The ordinary types vary in ground color
from "chamois" to "cream buff" in the buff types and "olive-lake" or
"corn-olive" to "olive-buff" in the green types. As a rule, the markings
are somewhat smaller and more uniformly distributed than in common
snipes' eggs. They are in some shade of light or dark brown, such as
"tawny," "russet-vinaceous," "chocolate," "liver," or "chestnut brown";
the underlying markings, which are numerous and conspicuous in some
cases, are in various shades of "purple drab" or "drab-grey." The spiral
smears, so frequently found in common snipes' eggs, seem to be absent
from those of the jack snipe, and, though there are some cases of wide
variation in coloring, a series will be found to be browner and less
bold in markings than a corresponding number of the common species. The
measurements of 146 eggs average 38.53 by 27.37 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =44.5= by 28.5, 40 by =30=, =35= by 27
and 38 by =25.5= millimeters. Rey (1905) states that the shells are
somewhat thinner and lighter than with the common snipe and gives the
average weight as 660 grams.
_Plumages._--The downy plumage is described by Dresser (1871) as
follows, from a nestling obtained at Muonioniska:
Entire upper parts richly varied, deep rufous and black, dotted
here and there with white; a buffy white streak passes from the
forehead over the eye; below this is a dark-brown streak covering
the lores to the eye; from the base of the lower mandible another
white streak passes below the eye and one also from the chin (which
is buffy white) along the side of the head to the nape; underparts
dark-reddish brown, slightly varied with blackish brown; bill and
legs much developed.
For descriptions of subsequent plumages and molts the reader is referred
to "A Practical Handbook of British Birds," edited by H. F. Witherby
(1920).
_Food._--Probably consists mainly of worms, with a considerable mixture
of insects and some vegetable matter (seeds, etc.). Naumann (1887)
remarks that he has several times found grass seeds in stomachs and
believes that vegetable matter is taken as well as insects and worms.
Newstead records Coleoptera (3 cases), Mollusca (_Tellina_ and _Helix_,
2 cases), vegetable matter (grass, etc.), sand, and pebbles. Cordeaux
found fragments of fresh-water shells and a few bivalves (_Pisidia_),
while Saxby met with plant fibers and mud.
_Behavior and voice._--The jack snipe is an extremely silent bird, and
to a great extent, solitary, outside the breeding season. The noises
made during the nuptial flight have already been dealt with, but it is
characteristic of the species that when flushed, unlike the common
snipe, it nearly always rises in silence. Naumann, however, writes that
on rare occasions, generally toward evening, a weak, high-pitched note
may be uttered, like "_Kitz_" or "_Kutz_," which he compares to a bat's
squeak. One may, however, put up twenty birds one after another without
hearing anything, though very rarely a single "_ahtch_" is uttered, much
more softly than the corresponding note of the common snipe. On being
flushed it dashes off quickly with unsteady flight, but pitches again
before rising to any height, and, except on migration or on its breeding
ground, usually flies low.
_Field marks._--Its solitary habits and small size are the best field
characters, combined with the fact that it is not shy and usually rises
at very short range, so that one gets a good view of it before it
pitches again at no great distance, where it can be flushed again. The
almost invariable absence of any note on rising is very characteristic.
DISTRIBUTION
_Breeding range._--Scandinavian Lapland and Finland south to about
latitude 64°. In Germany it is said to have bred in various localities
from Schleswig Holstein to East Prussia, but there is no doubt that most
of these records, if not all, are not, and can never be, satisfactorily
authenticated. It does, however, breed in the Baltic Republics (Estonia
and Latvia) and apparently in North Poland, while in Russia it breeds on
the tundra south to the Governments of Perm, Kazan, Vologda, Jaroslav,
Vladimir, Orel, Tula, and Tver. In Asia, though absent from the extreme
north of Siberia, it is found in the Arctic Zone south to Tobolsk and
north to the Boganida (lat. 70°), while eastward it ranges to the Kolyma
delta.
_Winter range._--While a few birds remain in favorable localities or
mild weather at short distances south of their breeding quarters, the
main body migrates through Europe south to the countries bordering the
Mediterranean and its islands (Balearic Isles, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta,
Sicily, Ionian Isles, Crete, Cyprus, etc.). In Africa it is met with in
all the countries on the northern littoral from Morocco to Egypt; also
up the Nile Valley to the Blue Nile (Lakes Nakuru and Naivasha), and
sparingly to Kenya Colony. In Asia from West Palestine, South Iraq,
Persia, Afghanistan, throughout India, Ceylon, Burma, China (scarce),
Formosa, and Japan. In the Canaries it occurs only on passage in small
numbers.
_Spring migration._--In south Spain, end of February and early March;
Corsica, February (late date March 27); Greece, February (late dates
March 2 and 19); Italy, April and early May (latest date beginning of
June); Cyprus, end of March and early April (late date April 16). In the
British Isles the passage lasts from the end of March to the third week
of May (late date June, North Uist); in Denmark, April; south Sweden
from end of March to middle of April; in Hungary they leave about the
end of March; and have been noted in Russia in the Caucasus, the Kirghis
Steppes, and the Urals. In Asia they remain in Iraq to April 7; Sind,
early April. Arrival noted on the Boganida June 8. In Africa, Morocco
(February), Tunisia (February, March), Abyssinia (February), and Egypt
(March).
_Fall migration._--In the British Isles from mid September to end
November (early dates, August 12, 1910, Norfolk; August 20, 1910, Essex;
August 1, Norfolk). Heligoland (September and October); also met with in
practically all European countries, reaching south Spain (November, end
October, or early November). In Asia recorded from Asia Minor,
Transjordania (October), arriving Sind (early October) and India
(September-October).
_Casual records._--Once recorded from the Faeroes (1910); also on
Madeira (March 15, 1889); Andaman Isles (once), as well as on the
Pribilof Isles.
_Egg dates._--June 4 to 12 (2 records); 14 to 21 (8 records); 22 to 30
(2 records); July 1 to 14 (3 records); 15 to 28 (4 records); 29 to
August 2 (2 records).
LIMNODROMUS GRISEUS GRISEUS (Gmelin)
EASTERN DOWITCHER
HABITS
The dowitcher, or, as I should prefer to see it called, the red-breasted
snipe, occurs as a species entirely across the American continent. The
long-billed dowitcher, the western form, was originally described as a
distinct, full species; it has since been reduced to the rank of a
subspecies, because of very evident intergradation; and now some very
good ornithologists are in doubt as to the propriety of recognizing the
two varieties in nomenclature at all, because no distinctly different
breeding ranges for the two forms have been established, and typical
(so-called) eastern birds have never been found breeding anywhere. What
few breeding birds have come from Alaska and northern Mackenzie all seem
to be _scolopaceus_, but _griseus_ may still be found breeding there
when we have larger series. I have had considerable correspondence with
Prof. William Rowan about the breeding dowitchers of Alberta, including
interchange of specimens. He seems to think that the Alberta birds are
constantly distinct from either _griseus_ or _scolopaceus_ and perhaps
worthy of a name. It seems to me that they are strictly intermediate and
should not be named. In a letter recently received from P. A. Taverner
he seems inclined to recognize the Alberta bird as a "short-billed bird
resembling the eastern most, but intermediate, and with spotting
characters different from either."
On migrations, and in winter, both forms are found entirely across the
continent. The best that can be said is that _griseus_ is more common on
the Atlantic and _scolopaceus_ is more common on the Pacific coast. Dr.
Louis B. Bishop, with whom I have discussed this question, is inclined
to call one a mutant of the other; he has some 200 dowitchers in his
collection, from all parts of the country, those from the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts being about equally divided and the two forms being about
equally represented. In analyzing his series, taking into account length
of bill, length of wing and brightness of color, he finds that: of
_griseus_, 86 per cent are from the Atlantic coast, 2 per cent from the
interior, and 12 per cent from the Pacific coast; and of _scolopaceus_,
14 per cent are from the Atlantic coast, 30 per cent from the interior,
and 56 per cent from the Pacific coast. While collecting near Pasadena,
California, on April 25, 1923, he shot into a large flock of dowitchers
and picked up nine birds, all but one of which were typical _griseus,_
in bill, wing, and color.
_Spring._--The last of the dowitchers which winter in Florida, or
migrate through there, leave for the north during May, though a general
northward movement has been going on during April. The earliest birds
sometimes reach Massachusetts by May 1, but usually the main flight
comes along about May 20 and lasts for about ten days. Audubon (1840)
observed large numbers of this species flying eastward along the coasts
of Louisiana and Texas during April. And Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says
that "these birds migrate to their breeding grounds in the far north
between May 1 and 15, and when the tide is low in the afternoon and a
light southerly wind prevails, flock after flock can be seen migrating
in a northwesterly direction. I have yet to see these birds migrate
along the coast line in the spring." This would seem to indicate an
overland route from South Carolina, in addition to the Atlantic coast
route referred to above. Professor Rowan writes to me that dowitchers
are common on both migrations in Alberta, and says:
In a long series of spring and fall skins, there is every gradation
from the supposed typical eastern form (_griseus_) to the so-called
long-billed form (_scolopaceus_). Bill lengths and colors do not
correspond as they are supposed to do. As far as this district is
concerned, there is absolutely no evidence in support of the
splitting of this species into two races. The only two really
long-billed birds that have been taken, were deliberately collected
from a flock as their bills were so obviously longer than those of
their companions even in life. Intermediate lengths, forming a
nicely graded series, have been secured. The colors and markings of
the spring birds are infinite in variety, and do not correspond to
the bill lengths that should go with them.
There is a northward migration through the interior, in which this form
is undoubtedly represented, but to what extent it is hard to tell, as it
is impossible to separate all the records. Both forms are recorded on
migrations in California and British Columbia.
_Courtship._--Richard C. Harlow has sent me some brief notes on the
courtship of this species, as seen on its breeding grounds in Alberta.
There were at least eight pairs of birds in the vicinity and they kept
up their courtships until he left on June 9. The males apparently
outnumber the females, for at least two females were seen surrounded by
little groups of three or four males, frequently singing and displaying.
"The male frequently strutted like a woodcock and displayed, and several
times arose and gave his flight song, a clear, liquid, musical,
contralto gurgle." Professor Rowan thinks that both sexes indulge in
this song.
_Nesting._--The breeding range of the eastern dowitcher is imperfectly
known or not known at all, unless we include the birds which breed in
Alberta under this form, where in my opinion they belong. Prof. Wells W.
Cooke (1912) writes: